Guardian
by Nacanaca
Summary: When the Daleks invade Gallifrey, three young Time Lords must escape from the destruction of their planet and survive in the world outside of their safe home. Cruising through time and space with their rebellious TARDIS Guardian, neighbors Talitha, Bernadette, and Angelo will have adventure after adventure ahead of them. (4 OCs) (Rated T just to be safe and for possible language.)
1. Chapter 1: Growing Up

(I don't own Doctor Who and I'm too lazy to say it again on every chapter. Please don't exterminate me.)

I heard more news of the war against the daleks. "Why can't a young lady live without such drama in this universe?" I cried. Trying not to curse, I retreated to my room. Kicking my box of various drawings and blueprints, I grew tired of everything. I fumed at the irony of my name. All that I wanted was to grow up, but my name did not agree. My name meant "little girl" in the language of my people. My name refused to change, refused to acknowledge my desire to change. If I could make a new name for myself, I'd do it. But nothing changed on Gallifrey, nothing except the distance that the dalek fleet closed upon our planet. The daleks, which focused on offence, could easily break through our thick defense, past which we had nearly no protection. What stuck up old Lords and Ladies there must be on the High Council, not to even think of a back-up plan. Of course, it was not my place to think such thoughts, for I was only 13 years old. 13 is such a tiny little number when you can live far over a thousand years.

As I always did when I was annoyed, I brushed my hair. I looked at myself in the full length mirror and noted that I could only be described as long. I had long brown hair, long arms with long fingers, and long legs. "Perfect for tripping over and bumping on doorframes." I said to myself sarcastically. It would take me a while to get used to being so tall.

"An update from the Citadel," proclaimed my homemade radio, "an enemy ship has been shot down, and the area is on high alert." We had been studying "Technology of Lesser Races" and the radio had been part of our end of course project. The Academy still broadcast news from the student run station, because we had taken quite a liking to the primitive radios, dressing them up with sparkles and glitter, and various odds and ends, much like a slightly functional decoration. The announcement startled me. "Only the area is on alert?" I thought, " Shouldn't the whole planet be on high alert?" Obviously the ship got _close enough_ to be shot down, and that's quite close. The daleks were advancing, and everyone that should have some sense in them was denying it. I had to act now. I needed to run.

I tried to contact my friends, but the signal was blocked. I tried using a psychic link. That didn't work either. "_Sepulchasm! _" I shouted, promptly slapping my hand over my mouth. I promised myself I'd stop cursing. I used my mobile. "Who thought that _Technology of Lesser Races_ course would come in handy?" The old Earth technology was so primitive that it didn't even register as technology at all during communications lockdowns A sneaky grin spread across my face. "I must look just like the Doctor right now." I thought, laughing at the way I always imagined that grin looked on him, because many a person had accused me of wearing a grin just like his when I had a devious plan. We members of the Prydonian Chapter always had tricks up our sleeves. Being a troublemaker was in my blood, and everyone knew it. The Prydonian Chapter was home to more than a few renegades, but also some Lord Presidents. Somehow the Doctor managed to become both. I had the reputation of being a bit renegade.

**That concludes my first chapter. Please review to tell me how I'm doing and thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Announcement

(I don't own Doctor Who)

Picking up the cell phone and dialing the number, I hoped that the Chancellery Guard wouldn't arrest me or something for it. It was a communications lockdown, during wartime no less.

"Hey Angelo!" I said cheerily, "Guess what?"

"The world is ending?" he guessed.

"Yes, and we're leaving."

"Shut up and hide in your basement or something sane. Could you risk crossing the street and hiding in my basement with me? It's getting lonely down here."

"You have just called down the wrath of the innuendo squad."

"Tell them I dialed the wrong number by accident, I don't have time for this nonsense."

A noise like static came from the radio. I jumped, started. The radio is always down during lock downs, so it must have been an emergency broadcast. "Sa- yo- elf-. " "Save yourself! Run! Hide! Just don't let them find-". The end of the message was cut short by the shots of a laser and a heavy thump. The new announcer had been shot, and identity of the murderer was all too obvious. "All residents shall be exterminated." A harsh voice said. Shivers ran down my spine. That was the voice in my nightmares. Angelo began to cry. The crying soon turned into almost silent sobs. A fear so strong that I could almost feel it lingered in the air, chilling my skin and leaving me numb.

"No." I whispered. It was all I could say, all I could think. "No!" I yelled refusing to allow it all to end now, in this stupid room, on this stupid planet, with Angelo inconsolably despairing in his stupid basement. I ran to my box of blueprints to find my plans.

"If you still have no time for nonsense Angelo, call up Bernadette.

Angelo let out a small laugh that resembled a sob. "I still don't know why that name makes me laugh."

"Shut up Angelo, I like that name." At least its meaning was good. It meant brave, which described Bernadette perfectly.

"Hello?" said Bernadette, testing the connection."

"Hey!" I said a bit too enthusiastically for a kid on a planet that's being invaded. "Do you know what time it is?"

"It's time for Operation G!" she replied with just as much vigor.

"Are you sure it's a good idea? Stealing is wrong you know…" murmured Angelo hesitantly.

"Don't worry Angelo; Bernadette fixed it up last week." I assured him.

Angelo stuttered, "But we're still stealing it. And we could be arrested or worse, we could get conduct penalties on our report cards."

"By the way Angelo, in case you haven't noticed, the planet is under attack by the forces of evil, and we need out now. So I think the circumstances call for Operation G." Bernadette retorted.

"Anyway, _Guardian_ agreed to it, hence the name." I stated calmly, trying to get us back on track.

"I think Angelo just is trying to back out because he thinks _Guardian _doesn't like him." Bernadette snapped.

"She's a really nice TARDIS though, you just need to get used to her." I said.

"She pushed me into the blinking swimming pool!" he yelled, "Do you know how cold that pool is? In case you don't, it's _really _cold."

"Let's just leave already before we _die._" I said bluntly.

"Fine." Both replied with an air of stubbornness.

This would not be a fun ride.

**Thanks for reading and please review! Even a simple _/5 star rating helps.**


	3. Chapter 3: Guardian

(I don't own Doctor Who)

The three kids boarded down the road, keeping to the back routes and in the shadows.

"Whoa!" yelled Anglo, as he almost toppled down five feet off his board.

"Don't go so fast if you can't stay on!" teased Bernadette.

"Then why don't you guys slow down?" asked Angelo.

The sound of a laser and a rather substantial crash answered his question.

"OK, I'll try keeping up and I _won't_ fall off Bernadette!" said Angelo.

"Good, but I'm not so sure about the last part."

"Bernadette!" I yelled.

"Sorry for being so rude, it just so hard to draw the line between honesty and rudeness." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

We landed, Angelo lurching to a halt and falling flat on his face.

"Ouch…" he moaned, pulling himself up from the hard ground of the junkyard where we had landed.

Turing on our flashlights, we searched the slowly darkening junkyard for _Guardian_. The reason she was in the junkyard was obvious. Whoever was her previous owner was did not like strong willed TARDISes because they were not easy to fly wherever you wanted them to go. TARDISes like _Guardian_ went wherever they wanted or felt you need to go, not where you wanted to go. _Guardian _either felt we needed to stay at home or just didn't feel like moving.

At long last we found the old wardrobe with the chipped white paint that wasn't really a wardrobe. It was _Guardian_. Feeling for the door handle that was concealed among the orate carvings on the door; I felt my hand catch the small pull handle with the unmistakable feeling of cool metal. It was literally impossible to see and could only be felt. I pulled open the door and was greeted by the warm light of the console room.

In the large room, a central control panel sat with all sorts of flashy lights and big buttons of all sorts of colors. It was a hexagon in the center of the room and all the buttons and levers and zigzag plotters called out to be pushed and pulled and spun. But all the controls sat under a cover of glass. _Guardian _knew that none of us could fly her. She, and only she, flew herself. She made sure of that. If we tried to fly her we'd all crash and die within the minute off takeoff. Walkways criss-crossed the ceiling the rose to dizzying heights from which you could look down upon the grand control room, all bathed in a warm light that bounced off the copper-colored walls.

Exhausted by our over-eventful day of events that would not sink in for days; we stumbled off to our bedrooms and collapsed into our beds. We were too tired to even tell _Guardian _to take us anywhere in particular, or take off at all, but she knew what to do. As gently as she could, we went off into the night sky as our planet began its end.

**Please review or rate! Put all your ratings on a scale of one to five, one being horrible, and five being amazing.**


	4. Chapter 4: The News

(I don't own Doctor Who)

I woke up in the morning and stretched. I opened my eyes and collapsed back on the bed, confused. This was not my bed. Where was I? Dazed and disoriented I lay in bed, trying to remember what happened the day before. I had the feeling I got when I woke up before morning came, having slept in my clothes, not sure if it was before or after dinner, morning, or just after lunch. It was like being in a house of mirrors, too tired and confused to even know which way was up. The lights dimmed to a soft glow. I guess I could go back to sleep just a little longer…

Bernadette woke with a start. There had been daleks in the citadel, and a ship got shot down behind us as we ran an Angelo fell off his hover-board – and she was in her room? It must have been a dream. It just felt so real… She paused and listened. A gentle hum could be heard around the room, it was familiar and brought back memories of making repairs and dusting shelves and- _Guardian_. "_Guardian_, is that you?" she inquired hesitantly. A brief change in the hum confirmed her guess. She exited her room and saw the lights were off in her friend's rooms in the hall. She had to get home before her mom noticed she spent the night away. She ran down the hall holding onto the railing. The railing was never in the same place. It was simply there to lead you where you needed to go without getting lost, unless _Guardian _had other plans in mind. Today _Guardian_ had other plans in mind, and Bernadette ended up in the ship's kitchen. A bowl of her favorite cereal was under the food dispenser, and she picked up and began to eat, only then realizing how hungry she was. "You better get me to school on time _Guardian_." Bernadette said between each spoonful. The table kicked her in the leg playfully with a wooden panel, as if to say "I could get you there a century earlier or a century late so shut up."

"Whatever," said Bernadette, "at least I'll get there.

"Oh no." though _Guardian_. How could she break the news to her? The war has gone to Gallifrey and the planet just wasn't safe anymore. They couldn't go back, not now, and possibly not ever, at least in their lifetimes. The the amount of time they must stay away from their home even she did not know, and that was a fact that hurt her inside. She wanted to tell them it would be alright, and to be able to drop them home without a worry. But these was a time for something much more than worry, it was a time for fear.

_Guardian_, can you put up the news? I want to see what's going on before I leave.

_"Oh no, how can I pull this off?" Guardian_ thought.

_Guardian_ brought up a broadcast of the previous week's news.

"_Guardian_, I know this is last week's news. You can't fool me this easily." Bernadette said.

_Guardian_ froze. The screen froze in place, the refrigerator stopped running, the silver trees in holographic windows paused their swaying, the flutterwings upon the flowers froze the flapping of their wings and _Guardian_'s hum lowered to a whisper. What would she do? What could she say? How could she spare young Bernadette from the horrible truth? She couldn't. It was as simple as that. She turned on the day's broadcast and all that filled the screen was panic.

Bernadette steadied herself on the chair, gripping it as if for her life. Her grip eased. She had to be brave. She sat down and assessed the situation. What could she do?

**Thank you for reading! Please rate and review! :)**


	5. Chapter 5: Gone

(I don't own Doctor Who)

I woke up to frightened cries.

"Talitha!" yelled Angelo, his voice filled with terror.

Nobody ever called me by my name, for everyone knew I hated it. It had to be something bad, but I ran to him anyway. I burst out into the hall, and as I ran it felt as if time had slowed. Bounding across in a single step, I thrust open the door to Angelo's room. I scoured the room for him, eyes searching the dark room for his frantic cries. I found him crouched in a corner, seeming to have fallen out of bed. His face was wet with tears.

"It's gone, it's all gone." He said. It was all he could say. Yesterday they had been running. Running from the daleks, and running from the gravity of the situation. Only now did it catch up to them, and they realized that Gallifrey was doomed, and it was gone. All of it.


	6. Chapter 6: Children

(I don't own Doctor Who)

The full realization hit me with the force of an entire world, and it crushed me to the ground. I wanted to comfort him, but I too was in need of comfort. We were both children, even if I was three years his senior. We still were children, and we still could cry, for who would not at a time like this? We sat on the floor in the dark and cried because it was all we could do, and words could not describe all our pain. We cried for the families we left behind and could never return to, we cried for the sunny days under the silver trees with the orange sky blazing above us. I thought of the happy times I spent at the Academy with all my friends. I thought of a warm Gallifreyan night when I stretched out on the grass with Uncle Ulysses and Cousin Theta and watched a meteor shower. Streaks of red, yellow, and blue shot across the sky as Cousin Theta held my little hand in his and told me what sectors of the universe each traveled through to get there that night. He told me one day he'd go to all those places where there were no heavy headdresses and itchy robes to wear, and nobody cared if you failed Academy, and you weren't expected to become Lord President one day. I wanted to go with him so badly. But I didn't want to leave like this. A world without expectations and filled with wonder sounded nice, but it just wasn't so nice when there was no going back.

I hugged Angelo. At least we had each other. The three of us could be a family, and although it wouldn't be the same, it would be enough.


	7. Chapter 7: Games in the Garden

(I don't own Doctor Who)

Bernadette walked back to her room, stopping to check on her friends. The light was off in Talitha's room, but the light in Angelo's room was on. She knocked, and when nobody protested her intrusion, she pushed open the door. She saw Angelo and Talitha sitting on the bed playing cards. Angelo would occasionally stop to wipe his nose on his sleeve, and Talitha would jokingly tap him on top of the head with the tissue box that lay beside them. Talitha's cards had wet spots on them- tears. Talitha would notice tears running down her face and wipe them off with her fingers and onto her pants. She was crying and simply couldn't stop, even though she was no longer sad, at least not visibly.

"Would you like to play the next round with us Bernadette?" Talitha asked with a smile.

Bernadette declined the offer and left. She couldn't tell them now. She imagined their eyes filled with heartbreak when they realized that they could never go home and that this was not temporary. If they were crying about a short lived dalek invasion attempt, she didn't know what would happen when they realized that Gallifrey had been destroyed. She went to her room and sulked, thinking all this over in her mind. There was a knock at the door. She opened it, but no one was in the hall.

"What do you want?" she asked, looking at the ceiling and walls around her.

A railing popped out of the wall. _Guardian_ wanted her to go somewhere.

"Where in the world does this lead?" asked Bernadette.

A sign popped out of the wall above the railing that read "_To the Garden_".

"Why would I want to go to a stupid garden?" she asked, annoyed by the interruption.

The sign lengthened to include "_It has a swing set._"

"I'm still not convinced."

The sign stretched again and read "_and jump ropes._"

"Nope."

"_and holographic flutterwings._"

"Holographic flutterwings? Count me in!" shouted Bernadette.

She ran alongside the railing as it wound its way around the twisting white corridors until she reached the garden.

Talitha and Angelo were there. Talitha was chasing flutterwings with a net, and Angelo was swinging on the swingset.

"You know you'll never catch one!" Bernadette called to Talitha.

"True," she replied, "but I'm sure I'll get closer than you!"

Bernadette grabbed a net from the wicker basket beside the door, and the two girls spent the rest of the Sunday chasing nonexistent flutterwings.

**Thanks for reading! Please rate and review to tell me how I'm doing.**


	8. Chapter 8: Monday Morning

(I don't own Doctor Who)

The full realization hit me with the force of an entire world, and it crushed me to the ground. I wanted to comfort him, but I too was in need of comfort. We were both children, even if I was three years his senior. We still were children, and we still could cry, for who would not at a time like this? We sat on the floor in the dark and cried because it was all we could do, and words could not describe all our pain. We cried for the families we left behind and could never return to, we cried for the sunny days under the silver trees with the orange sky blazing above us. I thought of the happy times I spent at the Academy with all my friends. I thought of a warm Gallifreyan night when I stretched out on the grass with Uncle Ulysses and Cousin Theta and watched a meteor shower. Streaks of red, yellow, and blue shot across the sky as Cousin Theta held my little hand in his and told me what sectors of the universe each traveled through to get there that night. He told me one day he'd go to all those places where there were no heavy headdresses and itchy robes to wear, and nobody cared if you failed Academy, and you weren't expected to become Lord President one day. I wanted to go with him so badly. But I didn't want to leave like this. A world without expectations and filled with wonder sounded nice, but it just wasn't so nice when there was no going back.

I hugged Angelo. At least we had each other. The three of us could be a family, and although it wouldn't be the same, it would be enough.


	9. Chapter 9: First Field Trip

(I don't own Doctor Who)

Chapter 9: First Field Trip

Our first trip was to study botany on the second moon of Fastidiosam, also known as Pulchra Prati.

The moon was covered in wildflowers, and we sketched and labeled them. At noon we had a picnic in the TARDIS. It was very peaceful, mostly due to the fact that it was completely uninhabited. _Guardian_ would probably keep us hidden until she felt we were ready to fend for ourselves.

While on our midday break, we discovered to our dismay that the tall grass made jumping rope was impossible, a complete waste of a lower than average gravity strength.

At the end of the day we went back inside and put the observations we collected from the trip into a little book that we placed in the classroom. It was our first souvenir. I hope that next time we can go to an inhabited planet and meet real, live, aliens! Hopefully we go to a planet where the aliens look Time Lord, just to get used to how different things are out there.


	10. Chapter 10: An Unexpected Collision

(I don't own Doctor Who)

**My first long chapter! I hope you like it.**

Thunk. We landed.

"21st Century New York!" said Talitha, "One of my favorite points in space and time. I've always wanted to go here!"

The three children piled out of a parked taxi cab in front of Central Park, eager to explore every inch of the park before the end of their field trip. The purpose of the trip was to learn more about Earth architecture in this general period. They didn't care much for the _purpose_ of the trip, but only for the trip itself. They strolled down paths staring at all the odd green trees and little statues on the side of the path.

"Oof!" cried Angelo as he crashed into a man in a tweed jacket.

"Sorry sir! I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright young fellow," the man said "I wasn't looking where I was going either."

The man almost continued on his way in the other direction when he stopped in place. Turing around he eyed the group uncertainly.

"Wait a minute…" he said. "I think I know you."

He poked Talitha.

"Oi! What was that for?!" she protested.

"Talitha Lungbarrow!" he yelled with delight.

"It's been ever so long since I've seen you! How are things back home? Has your mum been bothering you about your tinkering with the hoverboard speed limitation system again?"

Talitha was puzzled. She never met this guy before in her life! And how did he know about her slight bending of the rules back home? He couldn't have been from Gallifrey. Sensing her puzzlement, Bernadette decided to look into this strange man further. What else did he know about them?

"Dude, just shut up and tell us who in the name of Rassilon you are." said Bernadette in her business voice. Nobody messes with her when she uses her business voice.

The man, seemingly alarmed by this threatening kid glowering at him, introduced himself hesitantly.

"Oh right! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm the Doctor, I'm sure you three all remember me. Talitha's neighbors right? We met at that holiday barbeque at her house."

All three looked at him with equal amounts of pure confusion."

"What?" said Talitha.

"Sir, if you do not sufficiently identify yourself and answer all our questions, you know I will have to kill you." Bernadette said with a cold stare.

"Uh, don't you think we could _not_ threaten the life of random awkward dudes today?" Talitha suggested.

"Fine, but you still need to answer our questions mister!" Bernadette snapped.

The man was obviously intimidated by the young girl. He began to play with his bow tie.

"So, shall we sit down and discuss this?" he said, motioning to a park bench nearby.

The four sat down, tension and mistrust growing between them.

Angelo tugged on Bernadette's shirtsleeve.

"Do you think he's a bad man Bernadette?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think he's hiding something from us, and I intend to find out what." She replied.

Bernadette noticed the strange man had been staring at her.

"Were you looking for this sir?" she asked, pulling out a Swiss army knife and revealing the sharp blade.

"Yes," he said, and I was rather hoping I wouldn't find it."

He reached into his coat, looking for something.

"I believe you would be looking for this now wouldn't you?" Bernadette said with a smile, pulling the Doctor's sonic screwdriver out of her own jacket pocket.

"A sonic probe, this will come in handy later." She said, pocketing it again.

"Give it back! That's mine!" he said, whining like a child.

"Not until you answer out questions!" Bernadette teased, dangling it in front of him.

The man's eyes were wide, and filled with longing. He would obviously do quite a bit for his little toy.

"Now, what's your name?" she asked.

"I already told you! My name is the Doctor." He said.

"That's not a name, that's a pseudonym. What name would we better know you by?"

"Pass."

"Alright, then where did you acquire this device?"

"Home."

This man obviously was trying to get away with revealing as little information as he could. Sighing, Bernadette continued the little interrogation.

"How did you get here? If you got this from home you're not from this planet, or maybe even this time."

"Pass."

"How do you know Talitha?"

"Family."

"Who is your family?"

"Pass."

How in the world was he going to get himself out of this one? Of course Talitha didn't recognize him; Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time War. They must be impostors, and he couldn't let whoever these people work for get anything out of him. The TARDIS defenses broke down and he just made a pit stop to fix them. Now look what mess he got himself into. Two hundred years to tour the universe, that's all he wanted, and of course he ran into all sorts of trouble. What would his cousin be doing on this little planet anyway? He was missing such obvious things. Maybe the chloroform did wear off completely from that little misadventure in 1989? Or maybe he was just being stupid today. And why would his little cousin's best friend pull a _knife_ on him?

"Will you answer my question or not?" Bernadette growled.

"Oh! Right! Can you repeat the question?"

"Where are you from?"

"Pass."

"When are you from?"

"Pass."

"Goodness man! Do you even know how to play _Skips and Passes_?" she yelled.

"Of course I do! What else do you think I did during Academy?!" he yelled back.

They turned away from each other, thou roughly annoyed by the waste of time.

"Wait…" she said, smiling like a maniac.

"Oh snap, I'm screwed." The man said, face palming himself.

"You're from Gallifrey!" Bernadette said ecstatic to see another Time Lord that wasn't one of her to friends. This would be interesting.

The man's eyes began to dart about, like an animal in a trap. He was looking for an escape. Sadly, Bernadette didn't realize this until it was too late. The man darted up and ran.

"Wait!" the children yelled, darting after him.

After a few minutes of chasing they lost him. Breathing hard, they looked around for him. Little did they know, he was hiding in a tree above them.

\?/

"Death threats from 13 year olds. That's new." The Doctor looked around the park from his perch atop the tree. Where did he put his TARDIS again? He spotted it across the path. Of course, the children were standing in front of it. He reached into his pocket for his TARDIS key. Maybe he could make a mad dash for it and get inside. His pocket was empty. It was gone!

\?/

"There aren't any police boxes in New York City." Angelo said. "I don't even think they even belong in this time at all!"

"That means that this must be his TARDIS!" said Talitha excitedly. "Let's bust in and look for clues!"

"How exactly can we do that?" Angelo asked.

"It's not like she's ours. She wouldn't let us in without permission or a key."

"I've got that part covered." said Talitha, a smile on her lips. She pulled a silver key out of her pocket and put it into the lock. With a turn and a push, the door opened and the three walked inside.

\?/

The Doctor watched in horror. Not only did these kids threaten to kill him, but they stole his sonic screwdriver, and worst of all they stole his TARDIS. He stole her first, and she belonged to him. They traveled for hundreds of years together and all it took was three kids and one key to take her away from him. She didn't shove them out, she didn't dematerialize or anything. She just sat there, and he just stared.

"What am I doing? I have to do something!"

The Doctor climbed down from his tree, and with a snap of his fingers, he was in the TARDIS and racing down the corridors.

\?/

"Which way?" asked Angelo.

They had made a dozen turns and they were already confused. Talitha's scanner's map showed where they had already gone, but that was all.

"Wait a minute! According to my scanner we've been in this spot before!" Talitha said.

"But the walls look different." Angelo said hesitantly.

Talitha placed a hand on the wall. Something was odd about it. After a moment of shocked silence she said"That's because the walls are moving." Fear washed over them all.

Oh great job. Now you're freaking the poor things out. Shifty corridors, great idea. If she had a voice it would be dripping with sarcasm. I guess I'll have to let them find their own way around. The Doctor's TARDIS was hoping she could keep them near the console room where she could keep track of them better, but now that they figured out her trick it wasn't worth it anymore.

Several minutes later… (hopefully)

"I think the halls have stopped shifting. We could probably navigate normally from now on." Talitha said.

They turned right at the next hall. The hallway they entered had doors along both walls. Name labels were on every door.

"This must be where all the bedrooms are." said Angelo.

"Why would one guy need so many rooms? It looked like he was traveling alone." Bernadette wondered.

"Maybe he used to travel with other people." Talitha suggested.

"You can't travel with so many people at once and remain unnoticed. He must have been traveling for hundreds of years." said Bernadette.

Talitha was a bit disappointed. Even though it was almost impossible, she was hoping the man was her cousin. But he wasn't that much older than her. Her cousin Theta was born only five years before her. He had been 15 when he moved away, and she hadn't heard from him since.

"What if the crew changed? " Angelo asked. "If the entire crew changed every once and a while so many people could have been here in a shorter amount of time."  
"True, but that doesn't explain why he's alone." Bernadette reasoned. "It takes six pilots to fly a TARDIS properly."

"Or one willful TARDIS." said Talitha. "_Guardian_ flies herself, so why can't she?"

"Good point, but how did that guy make it so long without getting himself killed? He's clearly not careful enough." said Bernadette.

"Who said he didn't? He's a Time Lord too, he could have died a dozen times." said Talitha.

"Point taken." said Bernadette. "But I'm still surprised that a guy that clumsy didn't max out on his regenerations yet. He basically gave himself away!"

They talked as they wandered in and out of the rooms. Many of the rooms were still furnished as if their owners were expected to come back within the hour, but the thin layer of dust in some of the rooms gave away their age. Even a TARDIS can't keep the dust off after a few centuries. Some of the rooms had photographs in them. The people they featured were often never the same. A brown-haired woman smiling next to a curly-haired man with an unusually long and colorful scarf, a blonde cricketer showing a young boy how to swing a cricket bat, and a man with wild brown hair laughing with a young blonde girl were just some of the pictures they found in the rooms. At the end of the hall they found a larger door labeled:

**The Doctor's Bedroom:** Do not touch experiments.

Judging by a rather large burn mark on the side of the door, somebody could not listen to directions.

It was more of a lab than a bedroom. The only thing that proved otherwise was a small cot tucked away in the corner. The room was filled with odds and ends, half-finished machines, and the walls were covered in blueprints. Talitha resisted the urge to pocket a few of the blueprints and see if she could get away with it. She decided against it. She wasn't a thief, at least not usually. Another door was on the far wall. Deciding that there was nothing of much importance in the room they were in, the children opened the door and moved into the other room. The children opened the door end entered a small and quiet room. The pastel walls gave the room a bright and airy feel, and the assortment of soft armchairs and couches were arranged around a wooden table. Dainty white teacups and plates were arranged upon the table, as if waiting for friends to come and sit down for tea. An unlit fireplace sat against the wall and a clutter of picture frames were on top of it. There was another picture of the cricket player and the boy, and a rather odd one of a man in a rather bright coat in the console room of a TARDIS. A picture tucked in the back caught Talitha's eye. She picked up and gasped.

"Oh my gosh." She said.

"What is it?" asked Angelo.

Angelo went over to see what Talitha was staring at.

It was a picture of Talitha, Bernadette, and Angelo in Talitha's backyard near a tree. Talitha and Bernadette were on the grass, Angelo was on the swing, and Talitha's cousin Theta was hanging upside down from the tree sticking out his tongue and making a face.

"No way." said Bernadette. "He can't be. There is no way…"

"Well here's the solid proof." said Angelo. "At least now I can get him back for getting me stuck up in that tree just after this picture."

Oh no. They found out. They weren't supposed to find out. Now they knew too much, and they were not going to leave until they found the Doctor. Where was he? He could be really useful right now. First things first. The Doctor would not like to find them in his room, so she needed to get them out of the room. Just reconfigure the positions of the rooms, get the pool in position and-

The floor fell out from under their feet. Gripping onto the picture tightly, Talitha plummeted. The other two had stepped back in time, and Bernadette grabbed her hand. Soon she was being pulled toward the hole in the ground. Angelo linked his feet around the legs of the table which was anchored to the floor and grabbed Bernadette with both hands. They were slipping fast.

"Get on with it." thought the Doctor's TARDIS. Sure, it was a pretty long drop, but that was why the pool was there. She was not in a good mood today, so she would not play nice.

"What?" yelled Angelo, as the leg of the table literally vanished. All three fell down towards the water.

They fell in with a splash.

Coughing and sputtering , they made it out of the pool.

"Raise your hand if you want to get out _right now_." Angelo said.

All the kids raised their hands. They mystery had been solved, and they wanted to get dry.

"We've been gone for hours. _Guardian _must be worried." Said Talitha.

-\?/-

As it rounded a quiet corner near the park, a plain taxi vanished, and a young woman appeared in its place. If anyone had seen it, they would be quite puzzled, but _Guardian_ made sure of that.

She decided to become a woman with long brown hair and tan skin. She was dressed like an average New Yorker. Such complex disguises were reserved for newer TARDIS models, but they never used it. Most Time Lords liked to pretend that TARDISes were not fully sentient. That, of course was complete rubbish. Whoever thought of that wasn't fully sentient.

She walked down the street to the park.

_"Where have those children run off to? I told them to be back by two in the afternoon, and that was an hour ago. They probably didn't even start their worksheets either." Giving them a bit of space to be independent was obviously not working. "And so I must play parent to a trio of mighty Time Lords." She thought sarcastically. "I was totally not why I was grown."_

She searched the park twice, did three scans, and found nothing. No two hearted humanoid species were found in the area. She did find that 30% of the pigeons in the city were field scouts from a distant planet researching human behavior, but that was of no importance. She had some Time Lords to find.

Annoyed, she sat down and did a general scan. There was so much in the area that it would be a total drain on the power, but she didn't care. She had to find them, if it was the last thing she did.

_"Where are you?" There were 2,100,007 life forms not native to earth, none of which had two hearts. There were 4 spaceships, 3 of which could not travel in time. The one that could travel through time was a __**Type 40 TARDIS**__. She was only 1.3 kilometers away._

_Most likely, the children had gone to check her out. What was a decommissioned vehicle doing parked here anyway? It didn't matter what she was doing here. She just has to help me get those children back._

_Guardian _ran all the way there. Scanning for the slight time disturbance around the vehicle, she located her within minutes.

_"Alright where are they?" she asked the other TARDIS telepathically._

_"You mean those little strays that just wandered in? They're inside. I'm trying to get them out. They're snooping through my Thief's things and I'm sure he'd be quite displeased."_

_"So you're a renegade too? What's your name?" Guardian asked._

_"I actually don't have a name, but you can call me Blue." said Blue._

_"Blue? Why did you pick that name?" asked Guardian._

_"My chameleon circuit is sort of stuck like this, and I've grown quite fond of it." Blue said._

_"How long has it been stuck for?" Guardian asked._

_"It's been stuck about 900 years." Said Blue with a laugh. "I really don't mind."_

_"Well I guess we have a few kids to round up. May I ask first, what is the name of your Thief?" questioned Guardian._

_"He goes by the name of the Doctor."_

_"I've never heard of him before. Did he go by a different name on Gallifrey?" said Guardian._

_"I believe that he went by the nickname "Theta Sigma" as a child." Blue said._

_"Does he know who they are? Does he know who the children are?" Guardian asked._

_"No. I cannot bear to tell him. His hearts are still broken over the loss of our planet. To know would bring back the pain." Blue told her._

_"Then who does he think they are?"_

_"I must ask." Blue admitted._

_"Thief, who do you think these people are?" Blue asked the Doctor._

"Remember London 1973?" he told her. "I think it's something like that."

_He believes that it is similar to a certain misadventure we've had before. He thinks they are alien spies disguised as people he knows that are trying to harm him._

_"Well that seems far-fetched and just a little bit thick." Guardian said, displeased by the Doctor's odd theory._

_"Well, that happened before." Blue said. "It actually worked. I was taken away from him and he was very nearly killed. That is why he jumps to the worst case scenario without thinking things through first. He often fears for his life. He has died ten times already, none of which were pleasant experiences. It often seems as if the world is out to get him."_

_"I guess I can't blame the man. It just sounds so different from the boy Talitha told me about. You know it has been only three years since she last saw him? The girl says it's been the longest three years of her life. She misses him terribly. He must have changed so much…" said Guardian wistfully. "How old is he?"_

_"He's maybe around 1,100." guessed Blue._

_"1,085 years is quite a long time. How did he even remember her?" asked Guardian_

_"He does not allow himself to forget." said Blue._

_"Well, we better get started on finding those kids." said Guardian, changing the subject._

Blue opened her door, and _Guardian_ stepped inside. This could take a while.

It would be faster with Blue arranging the halls so that Guardian could get to the children faster. It would be a difficult task nonetheless. She had to ensure that _Guardian_ reached the children, and that the children and the Doctor didn't meet. She was almost a living maze of sorts.

Blue had almost gotten _Guardian_ to the kids; they were only a few yards away from each other. The Doctor seemed to be going down a hall nearby, but probably wouldn't turn and see them.

_"Just a little bit further…" _Blue thought.

Suddenly, the Doctor made a sharp turn to the right just as _Guardian_ entered the same hall.

"Theta!" Talitha called in surprise.

The two TARDISes had the same idea. Grabbing the children, _Guardian_ darted back into the hallway she came from and Blue formed a wall between the Doctor and the group. They both prayed he hadn't heard her call him.

\?/

A very confused Doctor slumped against the wall. She couldn't have known his name. Unless he was wrong, she couldn't have. But she knew his name. That meant he had been wrong. He was a fool. He had found what he wanted most but was too thick to realize it until it was too late.

"Why didn't you tell me!" he yelled angrily. He didn't know who he was yelling at. Was he yelling at his TARDIS, nobody at all, or himself? Maybe he was yelling at all three.

He had to see them he had to talk to them. They were the only others of his kind. Were they safe with that woman they ran off with? Were they OK? Had Gallifrey been destroyed in their timeline already? He had to know. He ran to the wall and tried to get through. He banged and pushed to no avail. He then tried to find a way around. He ran through the hallways at random, not sure where he was going or where to look. Suddenly he found himself in the console room, the front door closing as he entered.

"Wait!" he called after them, breathing hard from running. Hot tears slid down his cheeks as he stood outside, waiting for them to come back. There was no reply. The group had already left.

\?/

Talitha sat in her room on her bed, taking pieces of splintered glass out of her left hand. She had not told anyone about her injury. When she fell, she was holding onto the little photo so tightly that the glass had broken and some had stabbed its way into her skin. After cleaning her cuts, she set to work on removing the glass from the frame. Satisfied with her work, she set the frame on top of her dresser.

\?/

The Doctor sat in a comfy chair drinking tea. He walked over to the fireplace to retrieve his favorite photograph. It was gone.

"Little thieves." he muttered jokingly. They still had his TARDIS key and his sonic screwdriver. He'd have to give them a call. But first he had an important question to ask.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked Blue. This time he knew who he was asking, and he expected an answer.

_"I was trying to protect you." said Blue. "I didn't want you to know they knew."_

"Knew what?" he asked, knowing he knew the answer.

"I didn't want you to know that they knew that Gallifrey was gone. I didn't want you to know they suffered." Blue said.

"Think of the children." They had said when they asked him to fight in the Time War. "Do you want them to suffer?"

Fighting had not helped. He had suffered, they had suffered, and nobody had won. He had to know if they were alright.

He went into the console room and tried to think of a way to contact them. He could just track any minor temporal disturbances; track it into the vortex…

In a few minutes, he got _Guardian_'s contact information and left his number with them.

"You better call me back." he said to no one in particular.

\?/

Talitha, Angelo, and Bernadette sat in _Guardian_'s console roomcompleting their worksheets and getting a lecture for wandering off for so long and an assortment of rule-breaking activities they did that day.

The lecture was cut short by a little ding from the TARDIS scanner. They got a message.

The message read: "Hello! You seem to have some things of mine. Call me later! –Theta"

And so the lecture became even longer with the addition of stealing to the list. They'd remember to call him. Later.

**Please rate and review! Anything would be most appreciated. :)**


	11. Chapter 11: Grounded

We were grounded for two weeks. We weren't allowed to go into any of the recreation areas, visit each other's bedrooms, make calls, and worst of all, there were no field trips. We were supposed to be going to the planet Barcelona where the dogs had no noses, but now we had to read about it and write an informative essay about the planet. School without field trips was like a drought without hope of rain; it felt like I was slowly dying of thirst. We had the ability to travel anywhere in space and time, but yet we were still confined to the classroom.

After our horrible sentence was over, we called Theta right away. We called him, not to give his things back, but just in hope that he had just as many stories to tell as he used to.

We all ran into the console room, crowding onto the couch in front of the scanner. We all leaned forward in anticipation as we waited for him to pick up. Nothing happened. The voicemail message played.

"Oh blimey, ok, probably just leave a message at the tone or something. Sorry, I wasn't really trying to do this I was looking for THE BRAKES!" The beep followed.

All the children started yelling at once.

"Answer your blinking phone!" yelled Bernadette.

"I'm still mad at you for getting me stuck in that tree you know Theta!" said Angelo.

"Just try not to get yourself killed before you can heat this message." said Talitha. She was sure that would be easier said than done for him.

One day he'd call them back. He was just a bit busy roaming about the universe and having things blow up in his face to get around to them at the moment.

\?/

The Doctor had just gotten back from an interesting adventure involving a tree sloth, a Sularian, the planet Uranus, and a construction worker named Bob. He checked his voice mail and was surprised to find that an assortment of kids were rather cross with him. He decided to call them back before he forgot or something else came up.

Nobody picked up the phone and he was greeted by the answering machine message.

"Hello this is- Talitha! Angelo! Bernadette! -and _Guardian. _If you are hearing this message please leave a message at the tone because it is either in the middle of classes or past their bedtime."

He didn't have a message to leave at the tone so he hung up.

"How many times will we miss each other's calls?" he asked no one in particular. He had the feeling it would happen quite often.


	12. Chapter 12: Misplaced Among Many

**Even though I'm not a great writer, please review. it just shows your interest in the story, gives me encouragement to write, and tells me how I can make the story better! I'll update this chapter later, I just need to get the second half straightened out.**

The next field trip we had was to a planet that was known for its marketplace. We didn't call it by its name because it was too hard to pronounce. _Guardian_ tried to teach us how to say the name. It was just too hard. So we went to that planet to study alternative forms of currency. The place was packed, and we stayed close together to try not to get lost. The entire continent was one big market, and it was all too easy to get lost.

The market was filled with too many species to count, all selling their wares, from fruit to furniture, pictures to potions, and from tacos to teeth. If you needed anything, it was here. You just had to find it first.

People traded wares, animals, and money. Some used gold and diamonds, and others used cattle and goats. One odd looking alien was trading pouches full of diamonds to a human for luxury hovercrafts by the dozens.

"I seriously can't tell who's getting the better end of that bargain." said Talitha. "It literally rains diamonds on that guy's planet."

"I guess it's a win-win situation," said Bernadette. "because they are both getting filthy rich."

We kept to the main avenues, taking in everything. The colors, sounds, sights and smells where almost overwhelming. I turned to Angelo to show him a stand that sold fake noses of all different sizes, shapes, and colors. At least she hoped they weren't real.

"Angelo! Look at-"I stopped mid sentence only to realize that Angelo wasn't holding my hand anymore. He wasn't even there anymore!

"Oh my gosh!" I yelled so that _Guardian _and Bernadette could hear me over the noise. "Angelo's missing!"

The three of us looked around, calling his name, asking around for any sign of the boy. We found nothing.

"Can't you just do a scan for him?" asked Bernadette.

"My sensors would get overloaded and I could short-circuit or worse." said _Guardian_, her brown eyes showing a vast amount of numbers and words, barely visible.

"Don't try too hard. He might not even be within a ten foot radius." Talitha said.

"Why must you be so observant?" _Guardian _asked. "And for the record, my scan range was at 12 feet, not ten. Did you know the market expands underneath us? It's probably not the best place to be, judging by the fact that there is no visible entrance around."

"Do you think that maybe-"Bernadette started to ask.

Both knew what she meant.

"I hope not my dear, I hope not." said _Guardian_, a trace of worry in her voice.

Bernadette was angry with herself. Angelo was missing and it was all her fault! How had she not notice the boy's hand slip away from hers? What if he was lost, of had been kidnapped, or killed? If that happened, how would they ever find him?

\?/

Angelo had been walking alongside the girls, pointing out the oddest of the stalls, laughing at the strange outfits of all the even stranger aliens. He had been just about to point out an odd stall that sold the most bizarre looking multicolored coats he'd ever seen in his life when a hand grabbed him from behind and dragged him off. Before he could scream a cloth was thrust over his face. It smelled oddly sweet and reminded him of something…

*flashback!*

"If you choose to become a temporal disturbance investigator when you pursue your career, you will face many dangers." the teacher had said when he was in the Academy of Gallifrey. "Temporal disturbances such as the ones your job would be to investigate are usually formed by primitive attempts to time-travel. Such primitives may seek information on time travel. Giving away such information even on such a basic level that you understand now, even as a second year student, could have horrible consequences for the space-time continuum."

A collective gasp rose from the class.

A brave child spoke up. "We won't let them get a peep from us!" he said.

"You may think that," the teacher said, "but being a temporal disturbance investigator is a far more dangerous job than that. Although they are primitives, they will not hesitate to use weapons to persuade you."

"Like what?" asked the upstart student.

"They could use things such as guns, bombs, various forms of torture, and chloroform."

After various gasps of shock and horror at the brutality of such primitives, a young girl in the back of the class hesitantly asked a question.

"Would they really use chloroform on us sir? That has been outlawed on Gallifrey for centuries!" she said.

"You see, they won't even take into consideration that the effects of such weapons may vary from species to species, so chloroform is not outlawed on many other planets." said the teacher. "Jobs like this are reserved only for the brave of heart and the strong of mind. So other careers you may pursue…" he continued, Angelo's flashback fading off into blackness. The last thing he thought before collapsing was "Oh no, not chloroform, anything but chloroform."

\?/

_Guardian _had to park alongside a star in order to gain enough energy to scan the area where Angelo vanished.

Talitha paced impatiently. She could not stand still for a moment when Angelo was gone. She was all over the place. Her legs dangling out of the doors, sitting upside down on the couch in front of the console's scanner, fishing for paper clips on the ground from the walkways above the console room…

"Can you just stay still for a moment Talitha?" Bernadette called up to her.

"I can't!" she called back down to her. "It's just that- It's just that anything could've happened."

"I know," said Bernadette. "I'm worried too. Just try to calm down. We'll find him in time."

"But when?" Talitha asked. "When will we find him?"

\?/

Angelo woke up tied to a metal column.

_"Where am I?" _he thought._ "Oh look, its dark."_ _"I'm in a room."_

All his thoughts oddly would not attach to one another. Was that odd? Was it odd to be tied up? He was never tied up before this. Oh look! There's a guy over there. There just happens to be a shadow there too. The shadow just happens to be a bit ominous. If he could just put those last three sentences together… He had a thought. It was his first thought in God knows how long._"There is a shadowy figure in an ominous shadow. Run." _He tried to put together another thought. He was tied up. He was on a metal column. Run. _"I'm tied to a metal column, so I can't run." _His ability to think clearly was returning, but he still had no idea how long he had been there. He could not break out of the ropes or wiggle out of them, but his right arm was a bit more loosely tied. He shifted and stretched, until his hand reached into the pocket of his pants. His hand closed around his cell phone and he pressed a small button on the side of it. He was so glad that he had added the distress call button to it. An added bonus was that it was also slightly sentient for added shadowy figure began to turn around, and Angelo took his hand out of his pocket and feigned unconsciousness. He would not like to deal with this guy just yet.

**Thanks for reading and review pretty please! :)**


	13. Chapter 12 Part 2: Misplaced Among Many

**AN: Don't expect another chapter for a week or so. I have writer's block. :(**

John Hill was running for his life. His latest scam was not working out all too well. To be more exact, it backfired, and he was now running from an angry security guard. Why? That was a story for another day. Crime that crosses all of time and space was just too complicated. For now, all that mattered was getting away. He ducked into a small and narrow alley, and then jumped from wall to wall. Up and up he went, pushing off from the walls with expert skill and practice. Soon he was waving down at the policeman from the roof, and the policeman shook an angry fist at him from below. For now he was safe, but he would be back later with even more men. Suddenly the sound of static emitted from his radio. After a few moments of static, a message played.

"Help me!" cried a young boy's voice from his radio.

"What?" John said. "Who are you?" There was no response, it was probably only one-way. A steady beeping emitted from his radio. He was about to throw it off the roof, when he realized that the being had changed when he moved. His radio had been changed into a tracker.

"Whoever this kid is, he is pretty clever." John said, descending from the building in search of the child. It was a shame the tracker wasn't advanced enough to_ explain _what was going on. Judging by what little information he had, there was a child to save. Hopefully he would give a nice reward for his rescue.

As he went down, the signal grew stronger. He went down and down the fire escape of the building, then onto the street. The signal was still a bit weak, but he followed it east. He followed it until it stopped in the middle of a road.

"It can't just stop right here," he thought. "the signal isn't anywhere near full strength. Unless…" To test his theory, he jumped and landed with a hollow thump. The ground was not solid all the way through. There was a hidden cavern or room underneath. He bent down and placed his radio on the ground. The signal strengthened. "Why must you be down there of all places?" he said to himself. He took stock of this case so far. At the moment he had an unusual hidden under city, a frightened little boy, and possibly some money. " One of these things is not like the other… " he began to sing while typing in the coordinates for directly beneath him into his vortex manipulator.

In a flash he was down there, and it was darker than he expected. He stood for a minute to regain his balance and to let his eyes adjust to the dark. He looked around and saw no one. He had to go further down.

\?/

Angelo's act was ruined by a kick to the stomach. He would have doubled over in pain if he wasn't tied up. He glanced up to see a pair of dark green eyes that were filled with an evil that chilled him to the bone. He decided instead of looking pitiful, which he surely did, he would simply cut to the chase.

"What's up with this?" he asked. "What could you ever want with me?"

"That depends." His captor said. To Angelo's surprise, his captor was a woman. The only reason he didn't realize this earlier was that he could not see very well in the dark, and his vision seemed to be a bit off.

"You see," she said, "I'm not quite sure whether to hold you up for ransom, use you as part of a trap, or do both twice over."

"I'm sorry to say that you make no sense, most likely due to the fact that you're completely insane!" he said to her, hoping that if he made a ruckus somebody might hear him.

This only earned him another kick to the stomach. The crazy lady was lucky that he turned his head away to throw up, but afterward he wished he hadn't.

The woman continued as if nothing had happened, nearly confirming Angelo's theory that she was insane.

"I know people who would give anything for one of the last Time Lords in existence." she said. "If I play my cards just right I could get a double haul. All it would take is one signal and one drop of blood.

Now this person was seriously scaring him. He had never been this afraid in his life, not even when he lost his entire planet. Not only was this person just creepy and insane in general, she was now threatening to take away the little he had left. All his fear suddenly turned into anger.

Not caring that there was now a blade dangerously close to his throat, he head-butted her at close range with all his strength. She dropped limp to the ground with a satisfying thump. That should keep her down for a good two hours at best. Angelo took the knife out of her hand with his foot hid it under his shoe. Then after all that, he realized he was still stuck. He could try screaming like a damsel in distress and guards or henchmen could come and beat him up or some person might rescue him. Or he could just sit there. He decided to yell.

"Help! Somebody come help me! I'm stuck down here with a crazy lady! Help! Anyone!?" he yelled. "She also just happens to be a collector of alien technology, judging from the lovely biodata reader she has over there." He continued to shout just for the sake of making noise. Due to the fact that no guards or henchmen came to shut him up, this person was working alone.  
That was further proof of insanity, or just unwillingness to split the profits.

After a while his voice grew tired of yelling. How far down was he?

\?/

"Why in the world are there so many stairs?" John thought as he went down flight after flight of stairs. He didn't want to use his vortex manipulator in fear of overshooting the boy's location. After eleven more flights of stairs, he heard coughing coming from his left.

"Help." Angelo repeated half-heartedly head drooping in exhaustion. He had been going on yelling for an hour now, and he was losing hope. If he didn't get away soon he'd be in even worse trouble and there'd be a big advertisement across the universe saying "Fresh young Time Lord for sale! Sale goes to the highest bidder!"

Just as he was about to give up he heard footsteps running toward him. Not caring if he would be rescued or just captured again, he looked up hoping whoever this guy was would at least feed him.

The man had blonde hair and sea blue eyes that seemed hungry for adventure. On his wrist was a vortex manipulator, and he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. He got started untying Angelo, and in a few seconds Angelo was out of his bonds.

To John's surprise, the first thing this kid did was text a girl. He had no clue who this girl was, but he texted her. Then even more surprisingly, the kid jumped up and hugged him.

"Woah there, don't get too crazy." John said.

"I've had enough of crazy for today." said Angelo, kicking the crazy lady for emphasis. "At least hope it was only today. Anyway, do you happen to have any food on you?"

"Of course not! I went down hundreds of flights of stairs to get here, and you expect me to have food?' said John.

"Sorry, I was just hoping." Angelo told him, trying not to anger his rescuer.

"Fine, let's go back to the surface and get something to eat." John said.

This was the most awkward day in John's life. First he gets a half-written distress program sent to his radio by a kid that just won't let go of his hand, and now the kid wants a snack. Why is his life so weird?

John and Angelo went to a stand selling fish and chips.

"That would be twenty small diamonds, one chicken, or one pound of sugar." the man at the stand said.

"Actually," Angelo said, "could we have those for free?" Angelo had no money on him, and he was hungry, so he had no problem with using his psychic powers on this guy.

"Of course!" the owner said. "Take as much as you want!"

Angelo took his food, feeling just a little bit guilty for stealing from the man at the stand.

They sat on a rooftop and ate in a silence that could only be described as awkward, and John had thought his day couldn't have gotten any odder. The kid that he didn't even know the name of was just standing tied up in an underground base, and they just went out and got chips like nothing happened and that was completely normal. The poor thing must have been down there for quite some time because he wouldn't stop eating. Without a word, he finished his meal. John was about to ask him a question to break the silence, but Angelo had already nodded off and was asleep on his lap.

"Who in the world are you kid?" he asked the sleeping boy. John tried not to move and wake him up, and it was actually getting very boring. He stared down at the street, watching the people pass by and taking in the moment. He felt the boy's heartbeat on his lap.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Four beats. He was almost sure the boy was human, but he then realized that nobody had told him otherwise. Now he knew even less about him. He didn't know this boy's name, species, age, or how and why he got down there. He needed to ask him about that. For now, he just needed to find a way to entertain himself.

John was a man of action, which was why he joined the Time Agency. There was never a dull moment since the day he joined, not even after he left to become a con man. He was always running, scheming, planning, or just doing something. If there was anything he couldn't do, it was sit still. He looked around, twiddled his thumbs, hummed all the songs he knew, and puzzled over who the boy could be. He made it into a game, guessing as much as he could without using his scanner. Once he came up with an outrageous theory, he'd check. So far John decided he was named Bob, and he was a nine year old boy from Apalapucia that was kidnapped to be held for ransom. Now he could check his theory, at least part of it. He was way off. He was ten years old and was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.

"What?" said John. "Time Lords are just legends. They're fairy tales, nothing more!"

John could not deny that here he had a real, living, Time Lord child. Of course he'd been kidnapped. People from all over the universe would line up to get their hands on a rare and mythical being. But John wouldn't. He didn't work that way. John stole from the rich and gave to himself, and did not kill or kidnap anyone. For a con man he had a surprising amount of morals, just none regarding thievery, or lying, or bashing a few heads in occasionally. To put it simply he just didn't go around killing people, it wasn't his style.

"What have I gotten myself into?" John asked himself again. "Beings of legend, a kidnapping, and fish and chips. What a day I am having."

\?/

Angelo woke up to an unfamiliar sound.

1,2. 1,2. 1,2. 1,2.

He didn't even remember falling asleep. He got up to see John napping.

"Hey John. John!" said Angelo.

"What?" asked John, a bit annoyed.

"What day is it John?" asked Angelo.

"It's May 11th." said John. "Why are you asking?"

"Oh God," said Angelo. "I have to go!" said Angelo, already running off.

"Wait!" John called after him, "You know it's not safe out there!" John was already running after Angelo. This kid was just plain reckless.

"Where do you think you're running off to in such a hurry?" John asked, jogging to keep up.

"I've been gone for 7.583 days!" Angelo said. "They must be worried sick!"

"Who will be worried?" asked John. "More importantly, who are you?"

"My name is Angelo, Angelo Redloom." he said. "Why did you ask? Wait, I didn't tell you before did I?"

"No, you didn't" John said.

"Oh, sorry about that."

"It's fine. So where are we going?"

"I'm retracing my steps to where I was when I first came here. I'm hoping I could find my friends there."

"Well then let's hurry over! You've been gone long enough!"

\?/

"Come on," said Guardian. "Angelo is within 50 yards of here."

Talitha, Bernadette, and Guardian had landed where they had landed seven days earlier. Guardian had taken all that time to scan the planet and they had ended right where they had started.

"Here, put these on." Guardian said, handing bracelets to the girls.

"What are these?" asked Bernadette.

"These are tracker bracelets so we can split up and look for Angelo without you getting lost." said Guardian.

They each went different ways and would meet back where they landed in one hour if they did not find Angelo.

Talitha scanned the crowd with her eyes, looking at every stand, watching every person. She was momentarily distracted by a stand selling the most outrageously colored coats she ever saw when she smacked right into someone head on. Pulling herself up from the ground, the person she crashed into began to apologize, only for his apology to be cut short by the huge hug Talitha gave him.

"Angelo!" she cried with joy, spinning the smaller boy around with glee.

"Hi." he said sleepily.

"Where in the world were you?" she yelled at him.

"Didn't you get my text?" he asked.

As if on cue, Talitha's phone vibrated. She flipped it open to Angelo's text.

"Well now I did." she said. She didn't read it, she'd do that later.

"Let's go find _Guardian_ before she gets too far OK" she said as she pressed a button on her bracelet. That would tell _Guardian_ and Bernadette that she found him.

They walked along the road back to where they had landed. Suddenly, Angelo stumbled.

"Angelo, are you OK?" Talitha asked, a small trace of worry in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said, clutching his head as if he had a headache.

Talitha placed a hand on his forehead.

"Your temperature isn't up." she said. Then she asked herself "Could it be…" Trusting her guess she asked Angelo " Do you have an odd craving for sugar cookies?"

"Why yes!" he said. "Why did you ask?"

Before she could explain to him why, Angelo passed out.

"Oh no, is one of the times I wish I wasn't right." she said, propping him on her shoulder. Just a few more yards…

\?/

John was watching from afar. He didn't want to be right next to Angelo because he was hoping he could slip away once he was sure the boy was safe, so for now he stuck to the shadows. He was just about to leave when he heard a thump. Angelo had collapsed, and was being dragged off somewhere.

"Not again." John said, annoyed by this little boy's tendency to attract trouble of all sorts.

He ran over and addressed the girl. "Excuse me, who are you?"

He didn't do anything just yet, for he wanted to understand the whole situation first.

"Can't you see I'm a bit busy?" Talitha told John, voice strained due to the effort of keeping Angelo from falling.

"Well," John said almost casually, "one can't help wondering why somebody is hauling an unconscious boy through the street."

Their conversation was cut short by Bernadette coming across the group. After one look from Angelo to John, she kicked John in the face.

Startled by the sudden action, Talitha had lost her grip on Angelo, and the boy slipped out of her grasp and onto the ground with a thump that was a bit too loud for her liking.

Blood dripped from John's nose as he sat against the wall of an alley, hands tied behind his back with rope from a hot pink paracord bracelet.

Angelo blinked his eyes and sat up. He saw Talitha and Bernadette standing nearby, but what he saw in the corner of his eye took him by surprise.

"John!" he yelled, trying to stand and walk over to him, but falling back down.

"He kid." he said. "Do you know these people?"

"You know him?" Bernadette asked, surprised.

"You didn't ask first did you." said Angelo, not as a question, but as if stating a fact.

Bernadette looked at her shoes as Angelo untied the rope around John's wrists with shaky hands.

"I didn't think I could return the favor so soon." Angelo said jokingly.

After a short while and a few odd apologies they got their stories sorted out. They swapped phone numbers and parted ways.

"Be careful out there kid." John said. "And look out for each other. It's a dangerous world. See you 'round."

"See you." they said.

As the children walked down the road they reached a decision.

"We're not telling her about this right?" Bernadette asked.

"Of course we're not." Angelo said. He'd make up a cover story.

\?/

As a fruit stand vanished into thin air, a woman watched from the shadows. She'd get one someday, she promised herself. She needed her revenge, even if it was the last thing she'd do.

**Please rate or review if you'd like. All opinions are welcome. Rate on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being lowest and 5 being highest. Thanks for reading! :)**


	14. Bonus Chapter 1: Dreams

**Bonus chapter to occupy your time for now. I have finals, so the actual next chapter may take some time. Special credit/nod to Beautiful space, who I subconsciously took an idea from. (Bad brain, bad!) Extra special shout out to you amazing reviewers/alerters. You're all cool. :)**

Night on the ship was peaceful, or so everyone thought. In reality, it was quite active, even if only in the realm of dreams.

This particular night, only one person was awake. Angelo was in his room. He reached under his bed for his night light and plugged it in. He was afraid of the dark. He wasn't afraid of the dark to be exact, but he was afraid of what could be in the dark. He lay awake in bed, trying to sleep. As with many things, he blamed Theta. He used to tell him stories of the Vashta Nerada, the Weeping Angels, and other monsters lurking in the dark. He could almost see the stone face of an angel staring out from the dark corner of his room reaching out to drag him backwards in time. He knew that any shadow could kill him, and it scared him. He closed his eyes and tried to forget the dark.

Everyone else was asleep, including the ship. Her central column rose and fell slowly, and it glowed dimly as if resting.

Talitha was fast asleep as well, living out happy days on Gallifrey in her dreams. She was running through the fields with her cousin in the morning, baking cookies in the afternoon, and pointing out the stars and nebulas at night. She recalled a flour-fight in the kitchen they both had to clean up afterwards. It had been worth it. She smiled sleepily at the thought.

Not everyone slept well. Bernadette tossed and turned in her sleep, recalling the one day she never told anyone of.

She had been picking flowers in her family's garden. She was only five years old. Suddenly, her heart stopped, literally. She looked down at the bunch of flowers she held. They were red with warm, sticky, blood. She had been stabbed in the right heart, and the wound was fatal. She collapsed on the ground and the last thing she saw with those young, innocent eyes were a pair of crazed eyes staring back down at her with insane glee. Then she died for the first time. Only out of childish stubbornness had her regeneration hardly changed her, but the event had scarred her hearts forever. She woke with a start, grabbing the knife she always carried. She did not intend to let herself or any of the people she cared for die, not again.

Night may seem peaceful at a glance, but it was only peaceful for some.

**Thanks for reading! Please review, reviews are fantastic. I finally got to use some ideas, such as Bernadette's backstory that have been sitting around in my mind for weeks. Special nod to Beautiful space. She's fantastic.**


	15. Bonus Chapter 2: Jelly Sandwiches

Angelo walked into the kitchen and sat down next to Talitha.

"Whatcha eatin'?" he asked, eyeing her sandwich. "Is it peanut butter and jelly?"

"No, just jelly." She said, biting into her sandwich. Big blobs of strawberry jelly fell out of it and onto her plate.

"Why just jelly?" he asked her.

"I don't like peanut butter, and jelly sandwiches help me forget."

"Forget what?"

"Anything and everything. If I miss my family I eat a jelly sandwich. If I get a bad grade I eat a jelly sandwich. If I'm lonely I eat one too."

"So why are you eating one now?"

"A lot of reasons. They just sort of pile together into one big blah feeling, so I eat a jelly sandwich."

"Well then, I hope you enjoy your jelly sandwich." he said. He smiled and walked away. Talitha was enjoying her jelly sandwich already.


	16. Bonus Chapter 3: Up in a Tree

**AN: New actual chapter coming right after this! **(And of course I don't own Doctor Who.)

Angelo had a long history regarding getting stuck in trees. It happened a lot back on Gallifrey.

"Come on up!" called Theta from his perch on top of the tree.

"I can't!" yelled Angelo. Angelo could not climb trees.

"I'll pull you up, just wait a minute." said Theta.

"How would I get back down?"

"I'll think of that later." said Theta.

He pulled Angelo up into the tree, and then hopped out of the branches.

"Where are you going?" asked Angelo.

"Away! You have to figure out how to climb down a tree sometime." yelled Theta as he ran off.

Angelo banged his head against the tree trunk. He was stuck in a tree. Again.

It took a whole hour for Talitha to come looking for him. He sat up there playing with the silver leaves. He liked being in trees, but it would be nice to know how to get back down. When Talitha found him she got out a ladder. It always worked like that when Angelo got stuck on top of something, which happened a lot.

"What's up with you getting stuck in trees?" she asked while she set up the ladder.

"Nothing. It just happens."

"And on top of the roof, and on top of a wall… You really need to learn how to climb down things."

"I know. I just don't want to fall down."

"Then don't climb up!"

"I wish it were just that simple. I like climbing up trees but I don't know how to climb down. It would be much easier if I could climb up to the ground."

"That makes no sense."

"Does anything ever make sense?"

"I guess not."

They walked away hand in hand. Someday he'd learn how to climb down that tree, though he wouldn't mind waiting for Talitha.


	17. Chapter 13: Fear of the Dark Part 1

**AN: New chapter! This isn't all that good, so please review, they tell me how I'm doing. Thanks for reading! :)**

Talitha and Bernadette sat in the med bay with Angelo, looking for the right nanogenes.

"I found-"started Bernadette. "Wait no, those are the wrong ones." she said, putting them back in the drawer.

They had slipped into the med bay when they parked in Cardiff to refuel. The security cameras were down to conserve energy. They had to fix Angelo now or never if they wanted to keep it secret. They didn't want to get into any more trouble. After half an hour more of rummaging through drawers Angelo was better, or at least seemed better because he hadn't passed out since.

They wandered around the console room, bored. The entertainment areas were not functioning and neither was the school. They decided to pester Guardian with questions to pass the time.

"Guardian, why don't we come here too often? It's an awfully convenient refueling spot."

"Well, this place also seems to be accident prone." Guardian said. "Also, Theta frequents this planet and is more accident prone than this city. I don't want to know what mess he'd get himself into if he came here."

As if on cue, a noise came from outside.

_Vworp, vworp, vworp vworp…_

"Speak of the devil." said Bernadette with a sigh.

Soon there was a knock on the door.

Talitha went over to open it, already knowing who it was.

"Hello!" the Doctor said, waving with a goofy smile on his face.

"Hello silly!" Talitha said, letting him into the TARDIS and giving him a hug.

Soon all the children were on him crushing him with hugs.

The Doctor stuck his hand out. "Give it."

Talitha fished the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and TARDIS key out of her pocket. She placed them into his hand.

"You can keep this." He said, giving the TARDIS key back to Talitha.

Talitha hugged her cousin again. "Thank you."

"You can pop by anytime you want." the Doctor said" Just call ahead. I might be… busy."

"Because we all know you're _always_ busy Theta." said Bernadette.

"Hush up Bernadette! I don't look for trouble, trouble just finds me." said the Doctor stubbornly.

"And it may or may not have to do with your name being printed across the universe saying 'Come and get me, I'm obviously messing around with the fabric of time and space'!'" said Bernadette. "Anyway, how did you become Lord President twice before you were even born?"

"It's a long story." said the Doctor.

"Tell us! Pretty please…" begged Angelo, wanting to hear another of Theta's famous stories.

"Well, you know when I moved away when I was fifteen? Well I just didn't move to the countryside. I moved backwards in time."

"What?" interrupted Bernadette "That doesn't even make sense! That's totally against the law."

"Just wait for me to explain, okay?" said the Doctor.

"Well, my father could tell that a war was going to start and wanted to get his family out of danger before security increased and such. He broke the rules so many times over doing that. He thought that I wouldn't remember or notice because I was too young, but I was far past that stage. I didn't ever tell him I knew what he did. It was never mentioned in the house and he never intended to tell me. We just went in the TARDIS with all our things and moved to a house that looked almost just like our old one. I went to school and almost all our documents and such were probably forged. It wasn't too different, living a few thousand years in the past. Gallifrey hardly changed in that time. That's Gallifrey for you, always the same, always boring. That's why I like Earth better. I went to Academy, made some friends, two which tried to kill me at some point-"

"WHAT?!" yelled Talitha, astonished that childhood friends of her cousin's would ever try to hurt anyone, let alone her cousin himself.

"I'll get back to that part later if you like." continued the Doctor. "As I was saying, I grew up, nearly failed Academy, had a family, ran away, and became Lord President twice, not particularly in that order. I was also banished somewhere in there. I toured the universe, met some fantastic people, and got into trouble almost daily. "

"You had a family?" asked Talitha. "What were they like?"

"Maybe another time Talitha." said the Doctor, as one of the smallest of tears streaked down his face. "On a completely different note, who's up for fish and chips? I know a fantastic place nearby that sells that."

They all walked to the shop only to see that it was closed. They went to a coffee shop instead. No sooner had they taken a seat did the Doctor get up.  
"Oh my! I almost forgot to bring a friend of mine!" he exclaimed as he jumped out of his seat. I'll be right back."  
After a few minutes he came back. Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to introduce you to Clara. Clara these are some friends of mine. That's Angelo, that's Bernadette, and that's little Talitha.  
"I'm not little!" protested Talitha. "I was born only five years after you!"  
"Yeah, but now I'm over a thousand, so who's little now!" teased the Doctor.  
"You're old." said Angelo, grinning like a madman.  
Clara just stared, mouth agape. "What?" she said. "You're how old again?!"

"Anyway, I'm not old, I'm experienced." the Doctor said in defense of his age.

"You are exceptionally experienced with trouble, but not much else." said Bernadette.

"Come on, give me a break." said the Doctor, getting annoyed by their merciless teasing.

"We're only trying to provide entertainment at your expense." said Talitha. She was trying not to laugh aloud.

"I can't disagree with that." said Clara, grinning at how flustered the Doctor was becoming.

"You got me stuck in a tree, so I'm simply getting my revenge Mr. Bottle Ginger.

"You were a _bottle ginger_?" said Clara, laughing at the idea of the Doctor with red hair.

"I was going through a phase." said the Doctor blushing more than Clara had ever seen anyone blush before.

"You were just sooo jealous of me." said Angelo, flipping his red hair.

"Yes! The coffee's here." said the Doctor relived that the kids would finally stop teasing him.

"So how do you know them?" asked Clara after sipping her coffee.

"They're my neighbors." the Doctor said, quickly going back to drinking his hot chocolate. "Except her. She's the TARDIS they all ran away in."

"So the kids are Time Lords and she's a TARDIS?" Clara asked hesitantly, trying to get her facts straight.

"Exactly." said the Doctor, glad to have gotten things straightened out.

"So you are all from Gallifrey like him?" Clara asked.

"Yup." said Bernadette.

"So I guess you have a lot of stories of him when he was young. Got any embarrassing ones?" asked Clara.

"We have was too many." said Bernadette.

They chatted and drank hot chocolate and coffee, reminiscing about their various misadventures at home and abroad.

"And then Sarah-Jane asked 'It's you isn't it? You've done it again.' Then I was like 'Hello Sarah-Jane.' Then all the usual stuff happened, I almost got killed, saved the world and stuff. Actually, right before that bit Rani sort of reminded me of you Bernadette. She went all shouty and stuff. Speaking of which, hello Sarah-Jane!"

Across the shop a brown-haired woman looked up from her coffee.

"Doctor!" she called, jogging over to where they were sitting.

"Sarah-Jane Smith, always a pleasure." the Doctor said, hugging his old companion. "We were just talking about you!"

"It's nice to know you didn't forget me." she said.

"Well look at this!" said the Doctor, motioning to the large group he had around him. "It's like a little reunion party, except a bunch of us just know me. That would be a rubbish reunion party, but _this_ one is fantastic."

"So who are these fine young people over here? A little young for companions don't you think?" asked Sarah Jane, motioning to the young Gallifreyans who were watching her with interest.

"Well, she's Talitha, he's Angelo, she's Bernadette, and she's a TARDIS named Guardian. And this is my companion Clara." aid the Doctor, pointing to each person as he introduced them.

"Lovely to meet you all. I'm assuming you're related to him Talitha." said Sarah-Jane.

"I am! How did you know?" asked Talitha.

"You have the same smile." she said.

"Everybody said that." Talitha said, saddened a bit by the realization that "everybody" was wiped out of existence.

Sensing Talitha's discomfort, the Doctor changed the subject.

"So where's Lukey boy?" he asked. "I haven't seen him in a lifetime."

"He's back home catching up with Rani and Clyde. I decided I'd go sight-seeing today. I was hoping not to run into any extraterrestrials today, but I seem to be pleasantly mistaken. So what brings you here today Doctor?"

"We were just-"

Clara cut in halfway through the Doctor's sentence. "He comes knocking saying 'Oh Clara, let's go on a grand adventure!' then he takes me to Cardiff. How wonderful." she said sarcastically.

"The TARDIS needed to refuel!" said the Doctor "It just slipped my mind earlier."

"Fine." she said. "Just try to remember stuff like that before you go on rushing to the next Wednesday. We need to go somewhere awesome after this. _You_ owe me." She tapped him on the nose for emphasis.

Sarah-Jane checked her watch. "Well it looks like I must be off." she said. "I have a play to attend."

"Well that's brilliant, because so do we!" He held up a pair of tickets.

Sarah-Jane smiled, but her smile soon became a frown. "That's psychic paper isn't it?" she said with a look of disapproval.

"Come on, I haven't seen a play in 98 years! I have to go sometime, so why not now?"

"You know you have to pay for these sorts of things!" Sarah-Jane protested.

"Well I think this planet still owes me one." said the Doctor.

"You only saved the Earth once!" said Clara.

"Trust me, he saved this planet alone _a lot_ more times than that."

"Excuses, excuses…" said Bernadette.

The argument went on for 5 more minutes and a street of streetlamps hacked to light up in a rainbow pattern; courtesy of Talitha's sonic pen. For the record it was Angelo's idea.

After a while the argument was settled and the Doctor was permitted to sneak into the theater.

"Why can't we go see a play?" Angelo asked Talitha.

"Who said we couldn't?" replied Talitha, pulling out some psychic paper of her own. They were all going to a play tonight.

**Thanks again for reading, and please review!**


	18. Chapter 13: Fear of the Dark Part 2

**AN: Sorry about the lack of updates, I'm a bit busy with academic camp and I had writers' block. But I almost have this chapter finished and I have the beginning of the next one already done. :) Thanks for waiting!**

**A special shout out to all my reviewers. They can not only review but write as well. Also, I wrote another story called "I'll Be Back in Time" about the Doctor's childhood. It features the characters from this story in the first part. Enjoy the chapter! ~Nacanaca**

The Doctor, Clara, and Sarah-Jane had exited the café, leaving the children and Guardian alone at the table. They finished up their hot chocolate as the sun began to set outside.

"Do you want some?" Angelo asked Guardian.

"Do wardrobes drink hot chocolate?" asked Guardian.

"Um, no." replied Angelo.

They resumed sitting in awkward silence.

"It's far less fun now that he's gone." said Bernadette. "It was so much fun teasing him."

"Bottle Ginger." said Angelo, still laughing at the old joke.

The girls dissolved into fits of laughter. Even Guardian cracked a smile. Then Guardian began to laugh. The sound was as clear and bright as wind chimes, and most surprisingly of all, it seemed like she couldn't stop. She laughed as if she had never laughed before. The children realized that after a year of knowing her she had never laughed in front of them before.

Guardian stifled her laughter with her hand, a final giggle escaping her lips.

"Sorry." she apologized, as if laughing out loud was the most embarrassing thing she'd ever done.

"What are you apologizing for?" asked Talitha. "Laughing isn't a crime."

"It's not?" asked Guardian. "I was never allowed to laugh when I was younger, especially when my pilot tripped over his shoes in my console room. He'd do that a lot. Mostly because I took the liberty of untying them."

"So he'd scold you for untying his shoes all the time?" asked Angelo. "That's all?"

"I'd also tie them together, dye all his food purple, and flip the gravity while he was asleep so he'd wake up with his bed on the ceiling. Traveling on official business for months on end can be boring when you're young." said Guardian.

"How young were you?" asked Talitha.

"I was 11. I'm sure my pilot was warned against using a young TARDIS, but he didn't like listening to anyone. We get bored easily. So he just dumped my in a junkyard one day and told me I deserved it. He was a hot tempered man who hated the color purple. I made it a point to drop him in a junkyard one I found out he was going to dump me. We might as well both get dumped. I'm 16 now, but I try to act much older than I am. TARDISs mature quickly anyway. It's harder than it looks to keep an act up."

"Can you tell us more about your old pilot?" asked Angelo.

"Maybe later. You should be off to bed soon." said Guardian.

"Could we stay up just little bit longer?" asked Talitha.

Noticing a way to get out of bedtime for just a little bit longer, Bernadette used a distraction.

"Oh, look at this computer!" said Bernadette, pointing at a computer. They were in an internet café.

They were allowed to look at the earth technology for a few minutes which they used to look up the time of the play. The play would start at eight, so they had time.

"OK, it's time to go to bed now. Come along." said Guardian.

"Can't we stay up a bit longer?" asked Angelo.

"You're only just over one decade old Angelo, you need your rest. Same goes for the rest of you."

They walked back to the rift, the sun slipping out of sight. Guardian disguised herself as a modern art installment, and the children climbed inside. They went to their rooms and climbed into bed, but did not intend to stay there for long. After a few minutes they slipped back outside and caught a bus to the play. They rushed into the theatre and claimed their seats. They had tried to put as much time between going to bed and leaving. The lights dimmed and the play began. Lights filled the stage as the actors entered. Suddenly, before the first line was spoken, the lights flickered off one by one, starting from the back of the stage and moving closer to the audience. The stage was covered in darkness. The lights flickered back on, but the cast was gone. All that remained on the stage were the sets and costumes laying in heaps on the floor. The actors had vanished without a trace. The audience dissolved into worried chatter as they wondered what had happened. All the lights flickered momentarily.

"Oh my gosh." said Angelo, petrified in fear in his seat.

"What?" asked Bernadette. "Do you know what's wrong?"

"It's the Vashta Nerada. It has to be." he said. "We're dead."

"Angelo, you've been jumpy lately, and you have the right to be, considering what happened the other day, but it can't be that." said Talitha. "Vashta Nerada would not eat people on a planet where so many other things are available to eat."

The lights flickered out on the stage and the front row of seats. When they came back on all the people there had vanished as well. Suddenly the fire alarm rang.

"Everybody out!" someone shouted. It sounded like the Doctor.

If the Doctor was involved, it had to be bad.

\?/

The fire alarm rang with a deafening clatter and all the people in the theater ran out in a panicked frenzy. People tripped of dresses and women toppled from their high heels in their mad dash for the exit. Just before the mass made it to the doors the lights went out around them. They were trapped. Cell phones were turned on, casting a dim and eerie glow over the theatre. A man went up to the door to open it, but before his hand reached it he was consumed by the shadows with a spine-chilling scream.

"Believe me now?" asked Angelo.

"Yeah." said Talitha.

"So how are we going to get out alive?" asked Bernadette.

"Oh my god we're screwed." said a man in the crowd. "Shadows are eating people. If this isn't the apocalypse I don't know what is."

"Aw, I was hoping I could fight a few zombies before I die." said a boy. "It always looked cool in the movies."

"Who care what looked cool when we're all going to die!?" shouted a frantic woman.

The children slipped away from the crowd during the commotion that followed. Panic is contagious. They gathered around the light of Talitha's sonic pen.

"So all the exits are blocked." said Bernadette, taking stock of the situation.

"At least all the ones we can see." said Angelo.

"What if there's a stage door or something?" asked Talitha.

"You may be forgetting that the stage is covered in _darkness_.

"Maybe they left those shadows." said Talitha "You never know until you try. Light can't go through living shadows, so let's hope this works."

Talitha approached the darkness near the stage and shined her sonic at it. The light from its tip cut through the shadows.

"We'll need as much light as we can get. Do you have anything with a screen?"

They took out whatever they had, Talitha's scanner, their cell phones, a book light, anything worked. Angelo held the phones, Talitha held her scanner, and Bernadette led with the book light which was the closest thing they had to a flashlight. Their survival relied on luck, chance, and lights.

Talitha soniced everything to make the lights as bright as they could get. They'd need all the light they could get.

They shined the lights ahead of them and plunged into the darkness.

As they went backstage they heard the Doctor yell "DON'T PANIC!" but after that the curtains muffled the sounds from beyond the stage.

They walked slowly through the backstage area, watching the shadows mingle with the lights. The lights pierced through the darkness in some parts, signaling a safe path, but in other places the lights did not have any affect. There the darkness was alive.

They positioned the lights in all directions and they zigzagged their way around the dark spots. Sometimes the only way they could go was forward, other times, right, left, or even backwards.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" asked Angelo.

"They just ate the cast and twenty of the audience. They should be full for a few more minutes, but I'm not chancing going through a dark spot." said Bernadette.

"What if they get hungry and snack on our toes or something?" asked Angelo.

"Don't worry, they'll eat all three feet of Talitha's hair before they get to your toes." said Bernadette teasingly.

"Hey!" said Talitha, running her hand through her hair self-consciously. She stopped. Her brown hair that once was down to her waist was now only shoulder length and bitten off at uneven lengths. She grabbed what was left of her hair and stared at it.

"I think they already started." she said.

"Run?" asked Angelo worriedly.

"Run." confirmed Bernadette.

They took off toward the exit sign, not caring how many Vashta Nerada they caught the attention of anymore. The shadows tore at their clothes, ripping the hems and sleeves of their dresses and suits, leaving them in tatters. The Vashta Nerada were getting hungrier by the second. They jumped over props and dodged pieces of sets. Angelo and Bernadette reached the door first. Bernadette pulled on the door. I didn't budge. She pushed it with all the strength. It still didn't open.

"It's locked!" she shouted to Talitha.

She turned around to see Talitha trying to pull her dress free from the twisted branches of a fake tree. Talitha tossed her sonic pen to Bernadette the continued to try to free herself. It was too late; she had tarried for too long. She had two shadows.

"Just leave me!" shouted Talitha.

"What? No!" replied Bernadette, already making her way toward Talitha.

Suddenly darkness blocked her path. "Go!" shouted Talitha from somewhere in the dark. Bernadette heard a scream then ran.

"Talitha!" shouted Angelo. He started to run into the darkness when Bernadette soniced open the door and pulled Angelo outside with her. She locked the door behind her.

"We have to go back for her!" he yelled, struggling against Bernadette's grip to get to the door.

"We can't. It's too late." She told him.

"But we can't just leave her in there!" he protested.

Angelo grabbed the door with his free hand. Bernadette continued to tug on his other hand, trying to get him out of the dim alley beside the theater and into the bright lights of the city. She sighed and let go. Angelo was just about to celebrate his victory when Bernadette picked him up and carried him back to the rift.

Angelo was kicking and screaming, but Bernadette had put a rather strong perception filter on him. None of the people on the street spared him a glance. She took him all the way back to his room. He was a sight. His black suit had been reduced to tattered rags and his leather shoes had been eaten entirely, leaving him barefoot. His hair looked no better. His eyes looked red from crying and held an expression that could only be described as shattered.

"We have to go back." he said weakly. His eyelids were heavy with exhaustion.

Bernadette tucked him into bed and locked the door behind her on the way out. She didn't want him to do anything crazy.

**AN: Thanks for reading and please review! Your reviews help me make the story better.**


	19. Chapter 13: Fear of the Dark Part 3

**AN: Sorry for the huge gap between chapters. I was both busy and had writer's block. Not cool.**

**Special shout out to 1904 and PredatorOfTheDaleks for reviewing last chapter! :D**

Thunk. The Doctor's TARDIS landed beside Guardian and Talitha ran out. She went into Guardian's console room and spun about happily. The center column went up and down softly and sleepily.

"Aw, how cute." said the Doctor.

"Hm?" said Clara.

"It's a baby TARDIS. She can't even stay awake all day yet. Probably not even 20 years old yet." The Doctor said this with a small smile. He looked at the console lovingly. "It's a shame she had to grow up so fast."

"Talitha, go on and tell your friends you're alright. They must be worried sick." Clara said.

Talitha darted off down the corridor, giddy with relief to be alive.

She stopped in front of Angelo's door and knocked.

Knock knock. "Angelo! It's me!" she called through the door.

She knocked another two times, but there was no response.

She pushed open the door softly. She shook the lump in the covers of the bed and nothing happened.

"Angelo?" she asked cautiously. She pulled down the covers and did not find the usual mess of orange hair, but several pillows.

"Where did he run off to?" she wondered to herself. She left to room and went to Bernadette's room.

She knocked twice quickly and the door opened to reveal the astonished and tear stained face of Bernadette Oakdown. They immediately wrapped each other in hugs.

"I thought you were dead!" sobbed Bernadette. She usually tried to hide her emotions, but she could not hold any of them back.

"Where's Angelo?" Talitha asked.

"He's in his room." replied Bernadette.

"No, he wasn't there. He did the pillow trick."

"These are the times when I hate the pillow trick. Let's go look for him, he can't be far."

Bernadette was more worried than she let on, because she had locked the door from the outside. She set off deeper into the TARDIS.

"Wait, Bernadette!" Talitha called after her.

Bernadette stopped and turned around.

"I have a feeling we'll need a bit of help."

They entered the TARDIS console room and the Doctor and Clara were hanging about.

"Any trouble?" the Doctor asked. He was used to there always being another problem.

"Angelo's missing." said Talitha.

"Oh my." said the Doctor. "We can't have that. Let's look around then." He headed down a corridor. When he noticed that Clara wasn't following he stopped.

"Can't she help us?" Clara asked, pointing to the console.

"We don't want to get in trouble!" all the Time Lords said in unison.

Clara chuckled. "You're such wimps. This will probably be the smallest fix you'll ever get into."

"All right." muttered Bernadette. She walked over to the console and pressed a small button labeled "Press for Assistance". The entire console room rocked then stilled back to the same sleepy silence. She sighed and pressed the button again. The room lit up.

Text appeared on the scanner screen on the console.

_"How may I help you three in the flipping morning?"_ it read.

"We need your help finding Angelo."

_"Did he wander off?"_ Guardian asked, _"Because he's not in here."_

There was an audible sound of discontentment from all of them.

"Can you just scan around for him?" asked Talitha.

_"No, Cardiff is too strange for that, with all the perception filters, secret bases and assorted alien technology."_ said Guardian. _"So that means we have to do this the old fashioned way. Everybody out!"_

The doors opened and they all exited. The art installment she was disguised as disappeared and Guardian reappeared in her usual humanoid form.

"I hate walking on foot." Guardian said, starting off in a random direction. It seems it was the right one because a few yards ahead they found a footprint from a puddle. It was the bottom of a shoe, and it had an intricate circular design on it.

"Why does he get those shoes?" the Doctor whined. "I always wanted those. All the cool kids had those."

"Focus Doctor." said Talitha.

"Oh, right." He said. He took out a large magnifying glass and stared at the ground, following the line of prints until they faded. They noticed more by another puddle further along and followed those. They went on like that for an hour until they were on a lonely road outside of town.

"It stops here." said Bernadette, looking around. She looked up at the steadily lightening grey sky as if it held answers.

Suddenly Talitha sat down. All of them turned around and looked at her, then at what she was staring at. There was a tree, and something orange in its branches on the other side of it.

Talitha was rocking back and forth on the ground.

The Doctor went over to the other side of the tree and stared. Clara walked over to Talitha to comfort her, wondering what the matter was. Then suddenly she put the puzzle together, forming a sickening picture in her mind. She had seen that shade of orange in only one place before. Sipping hot chocolate in a warm café there was once a little redheaded alien. Now the same child hung in the tree, a rope of bed sheets tied in a noose around his neck. Angelo's body was limp on the end of the makeshift rope, face pale and lifeless. He swung gently in the breeze like a horrific wind chime.

The Doctor took him down from the tree with care and laid him on the ground. A note fluttered out of Angelo's pocket and Clara snatched it from the wind before it could blow away. She opened it up but could not make sense of the jumble of circles that covered the paper's surface. She passed it to the Doctor.

"Doctor, do you have any idea what this is?" Clara asked, pointing to the strange paper.

The Doctor looked at it at a moment then said "It's for you Bernadette."

Looking over to see that Bernadette was a few yards away vomiting, and Guardian had either dematerialized or turned invisible, he decided to read it out loud.

_Dear Bernadette,_

_I'd like to apologize for being an idiot all my life. Maybe I should have never left home. I actually would have never left Gallifrey if it wasn't for her. I had no way of knowing at the time that I'd be doomed either way. Stupid little me, yearning for her no matter how big the risks. I may have been an idiot, but I was always her little ginger idiot, so now that she's gone, who am I? I am but a ghost. So I have decided to stop haunting. Please know that it is not your fault or anyone else's and-_

The Doctor paused here, his eyes, full of shock and disbelief. When I noticed that everyone was staring at him, he took a deep breath and finished the last sentence.

_And thank the Doctor for teaching me how to climb a tree._

The color was gone from all their faces as they stared at the letter. The letter that held so much sadness, so much death. They looked down at the body on the ground, light blue eyes staring up, the light gone from them. Talitha was desperately trying to make the boy breathe. She had no idea what to do when a person hangs themself, but she did what little she knew how to do.

Push, push, push, breathe, breathe. Push, push, push, breathe, breathe. Push, push, push, breathe, breathe. Her attempts at CPR were like warm kisses on cold lips. She tried to start his dead hearts frantically. She called up all the power of her thoughts and directed them to her fingers. They glowed with regeneration energy. She pressed her hands to his hearts, trying to force him back alive. The light simply went back into her hands. She cried into his shirt as if to never cease.

The Doctor began to run away back to Cardiff.

"Wait, Doctor!" Clara called after him. "Where are you going?"

"Time can be rewritten!" he said, not slowing his pace.

Clara darted down the road after him.

\?/

The Doctor pushed open the TARDIS doors, Clara coming in behind him and panting hard. He spun around the console, pressing buttons and flipping levers.

"You see Clara;" he said "there are fixed points and points that _can_ be rewritten if you are very,_very_ careful. This is not a fixed point, so who's up for changing the future?" he asked, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Judging by the look on your face, we're breaking quite a few rules." Clara said.

"All of them." the Doctor said. He pulled a lever, and with a massive jolt the TARDIS took off.

It landed, and suddenly Taltiha was sitting on the floor just like before. It was as if they had not yet dropped her home yet.

"See?" the Doctor said. "If you screw up time in just the right way you can cheat it."

The Doctor set the coordinates for an hour before he had done the first time around. They took off once more. When they landed the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors.

"Well of you go!" he said cheerily.

"Before I leave, thank you for saving me." said Talitha.

"You should thank her." the Doctor said, patting the TARDIS console fondly. "She got your message."

"Well I guess I should be off then." Talitha said. "Goodnight!" she waved and ran off into the night.

The Doctor sighed in relief. "You have no idea how many ways that could have gone wrong." he said.

"So what happened to the other reality?" asked Clara.

"That version of this reality popped out of existence when I pulled this little stunt." said the Doctor. "If I screwed it up this version of reality would pop out of existence and-"

Clara finished his sentence. "And us with it."

"Yeah," he said, playing with his bowtie nervously. "I wasn't really thinking of that when I did it. But at least we're all alive! That's always nice."

"Yes, it is nice to be alive." said Clara.

\?/

"I can't lose you too she said. She hugged him close "I'm sorry." She held Angelo's head in her hands and gave his mind a gentle nudge toward sleep. Angelo went out like a light. She turned on the nightlight by the bed and left the TARDIS. She had to do this alone.

Bernadette ran all the way to the theatre. Her feet slapped on the pavement and the few people on the street at the earlier hour veered to the side of the street to avoid a head on collision with her. She was desperate. Although she may have already been defeated her heart still carried a tiny scrap of hope. She held onto it as if her own life depended on it.

When she got to the backstage door she soniced the door open and went inside. The lights had come back on and it looked vastly less frightening. The props and backdrops looked almost friendly in the light, painted in whimsical colors. There were people in the theater so she didn't' risk calling out. She poked around, looking for Talitha. She looked behind curtains, in the corners of the backstage area. Talitha was nowhere to be seen.

"Talitha?" she whispered. There was no response.

She dared to speak bit louder. "Talitha?" There was still no response.

Footsteps came from nearby. Bernadette ducked behind a curtain. She peeked out to see a policeman looking around, possibly investigating the area. Several dozen people cannot suddenly vanish without anybody noticing.

Bernadette decided to leave. She didn't want to get questioned by police, especially due to the contents of her pockets. It would take a while to explain the sonic pen and even longer to get away without suspicion with her pocket knife.

She slid over to the door and darted out before she could be seen. She walked back to the rift where Guardian was parked and an air of sadness seemed to follow her. She walked inside the TARDIS and went to her room. Everything had an air of peace and sleepiness to it, as if the world was oblivious of the horrors that occurred that night. Instead of going to her bedroom she went to the library. She sat in a chair staring at the massive fireplace and the flickering flames it held.

The shadows and light the fire created danced upon the walls like ghosts, mysterious, dark, and restless.

Suddenly the door creaked open and Bernadette jumped up like a shot.

"Who's there!" she called into the dark, looking at the sliver of light that came from the now open door. She drew her knife defensively. The rational part of her knew nothing harmful could get inside the TARDIS, but at the moment she only felt an unfounded fear. Her hearts beat rapidly. She had hoped to make a brave stand against whatever was there if there was anything there at all, but she became too afraid and decided to hide behind the chair instead.

She huddled on the floor then dared to peek over the top of the chair. Sitting in the across from hers reading a book was none other than Talitha Lungbarrow. Bernadette hid again.

"I don't believe in ghosts, I don't believe in ghosts…" she said to herself, trying to gather her courage. What she saw could not be possible.

She looked over the top of the chair again and the apparition was still there in the dim firelight. Her hair was bitten and uneven, causing Bernadette to recall the incident, the second time she had failed to protect her friends.

What was she thinking? She did not believe in ghosts. That would be silly, childish even. She decided to face her fear head on. Well, more from behind to be exact.

She slipped behind Talitha's chair then popped up and shouted. Talitha jumped up and screamed, dropping her book.

"What was that for?!" Talitha asked, still shaken from surprise.

"Sorry, just making sure you weren't _dead_." said Bernadette.

"I was going to tell you I wasn't after this chapter, no need to get antsy. Now I lost my bookmark."

She looked about the floor for the bookmark almost casually.

"How in the world did you survive?" Bernadette asked with genuine curiosity. "I thought you were a goner."

"So did I." said Talitha. "But Theta rescued me at the last second."

"It would be nice if he came before the nick of time." said Bernadette.

They walked down the hall hugging and laughing. They bumped into Angelo in the hall. Angelo enveloped Talitha in a massive hug.

"Don't ever do that to me again." he told her.

"Never." said Talitha, pulling him closer.

Bernadette snuck away, leaving the two alone together.

"I would have never guessed.,," she muttered to herself with a smile.

And so life went on and the sun rose in the morning as it always must. With the sound of temporal engines they took off into the vortex, with many more adventures in store.

**AN: Did you like it? Did you hate it? Review! Please...**


	20. Bonus Chapter 4: Lost Letters

**AN: Thank you people who still bother reading this! I'm posting this while I think of a chapter title for the next real chapter. Part 1 (hopefully of 2) is ready to post. I just need a title. Maybe I'll think of one in the morning. While you wait, enjoy this short I made.**

It was late at night when the cell phone on Talitha's bedside table rang. She reached over for the phone. The top of the table tilted and the phone slid into her hand, She sat up in bed and read the caller ID.  
"Amelia Pond"  
She had no idea who Amelia Pond was but she answered it anyway. Hardly anyone knew her number.  
"Hello?" she inquired.  
"Hello, this is Amelia Pond. Am I speaking to Talitha Lungbarrow?" Amy asked.  
"Yes." Talitha replied.  
They both spoke at the same time. "This may sound silly, but what year is it?"  
They laughed then continued.  
"You're the one that called." said Talitha.  
"It's 2011." said Amy.  
"It's 2013 on this end." replied Talitha. "Is that okay by you?"  
"I've seen stranger." said Amy. Amy then uttered something about the call being a bit late. There was a rustling of paper on Amy's end.  
"I have a message for you." Amy said.  
"OK."  
Amy cleared her throat and read from the paper.  
"I regret to inform you that the Doctor is-" Amy stopped and reconsidered her words. "-has passed away as of April 22nd of 2011 at 5:02 PM.  
"OK." Talitha said.  
"OK?!" Amy shouted, furious. "You are the only reachable person under his family contacts and you just say "OK"?!" Amy began to weep. "My best friend just died and all you had to say is "OK. "  
"No." Talitha said, hanging up the call and leaving Amy baffled at the meaning of it.  
"It's only dead letters" said Talitha as she settled back into bed. "It's just my phone picking up signals from an alternate universe. Weird stuff happens in the Time Vortex. She went to sleep with the benefit of the doubt.


End file.
